May 06, 2014

Quicksilver shares fall on higher-than-expected loss

Shares in Fort Worth-based Quicksilver Resources were down about 8 percent this morning after the company said it lost $58.8 million in the first quarter. After one-time adjustments, it lost $14 million, or 8 cents a share, compared to Wall Street's consensus estimate of a loss of 6 cents. The natural gas producer's average daily production was down 31 percent from a year ago, to an average of 246 million cubic feet equivalent a day. It said a majority of the decline due to Quicksilver's sale of 25 percent of its Barnett Shale properties, reduced drilling in the field, and the sale of Montana assets in the past year. The Barnett accounts for about 60 percent of the company's production. Long-term debt remained at just under $2 billion.

Quicksilver sold its Colorado properties during the quarter for cash proceeds of $93.5 million, but that won't show up on the company's books until the second quarter, it said. It also said it drilled five wells and completed 14 in the Barnett Shale in the quarter and expects that to increase production in the field by more than 10 percent in the second quarter compared to the first quarter this year.